THE Ilimo Dairy Farm in Central will cost about US$41 million (about K128m) to complete, says National Planning Minister Richard Maru.
He recently visited the farm to see the progress.
The project is being developed by Innovative Agro Industry Ltd.
Ilimo Dairy Farm is located in the Kairuku-Hiri district of Central.
The shareholders equity partners of the project include IAI at 50 per cent, the government at 20 per cent and Central government owns 30 per cent.
Further financing, facilitated by IAI, is provided by Bank Leumi, of Israel. The farm is expected to create employment for more than 150 fulltime employees.
It is estimated that Papua New Guinea imports around 13 million litres of dairy products annually.
At full capacity, the Ilimo dairy farm will produce five million liters of dairy products annually, including fresh milk, flavoured
milk, yogurts, icecream and other dairy snacks.
By replacing imports, the farm is expected to slash
consumer prices by at least 40 per cent.
Maru was briefed about the construction phase, which is expected to be completed by November, with products on the shelves by next January.
The dairy cows have arrived from New Zealand and are at the facility.
“Putting cash into the people’s hard work is starting a programme of finalised inclusion,” he said.
“We need to engage our people now and stop the rhetoric of the inclusion slogan of ordinary hard working Papua New Guineans and inject much-needed cash into local economies.”
“llimo Dairy is scheduled to be completed within a short 12-month period, is yet another example of the government’s public-private partnership programme, which continues to create a wealth of opportunities for our people.
“We are helping our people to spend money locally while creating opportunities at the village level. In this particular partnership, IAI have proven once more that they are serious about developing the agriculture industry in Papua New Guinea.
“The government is deliberately investing in the dairy farm to reduce the importation of over K400 million in dairy products that Papua New Guinea imports
annually, which we can produce locally.
“Papua New Guinea will need a further three to four dairy farms of the same size as lllimo to produce enough volumes of dairy products to meet our needs.
“The government will be working with the Morobe provincial government to identify suitable land for the setting up of our second dairy farm in Lae depending on the success of the farm and processing plant at IIlimo.”